Because of a paucity of published data on amounts of food ingested by normal infants fed ad libitum, the following summary is presented.

Subjects and FeedingsThe data pertain to observations made during the course of metabolic balance studies with normal fullterm infants. At the time of each balance study the infant was judged to be in excellent health; even mild rhinorrhea was considered a contraindication to proceeding with the balance study. The occurrence of fever, loose stools, or vomiting during the three days of a balance study resulted in immediate termination of the study, which was then rescheduled for the next week. In studies performed between 1954 and May, 1959, all infants lived continuously in the metabolism ward. After May, 1959, infants lived at home and were admitted to the metabolism ward only as necessary for performance of 72-hour balance studies. The majority of the infants were studied at